Holiday Short Stories

Summary

The stories in this collection each show acceptance of others simply because they are, once the preconceived conception of others needing to fit in a molds constructed by a society lost in dogma. I hope the reader of these stories will learn to reach outside the box of social sameness and learn that holding onto prejudices hurts most those who are prejudice, that true freedom comes from accepting others simply because they are aside from personal beliefs.

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Holiday Short Stories - Jayne Amanda Maynes

978-1-3101-6491-0

Index

A Fathers Dream!

Christmas Snow!

The Christmas Goose!

The Christmas Wish!

The New Year Fool?

A Fathers Dream!

It's my experience that every man hopes to one day have a son to carry on his name once he's gone. I'm no different, but to me the health of my children comes first, and that is their mental health as well as their physical health. Here I want to talk about my youngest since she wasn't what she appeared to be on the outside.

Angela wasn't born Angela, but that is, who she is now, as well who she has always been. I was so proud the day she was born thinking I had the son who would one day carry on the name keeping my line alive to the next generation and maybe beyond. She was wrapped in a little blue blanket the day she was born. We fixed her room up to suit our idea of what a boy was since that was what we thought she was. For three years we believed her to be the boy she seemed. Then one day she showed who she was inside. She was playing dress up with her sisters, and they dressed her in their clothes. At first I was furious they would do something like that, but decided I would let it slide since they were all still so young.

I talked to the older girls about dressing Angela in their clothes, and they said they only did it because she started crying when she couldn't be a girl and dress up like they did. I started watching as they played more closely, in hopes of understanding what they did, and how they did it. A few days later they were playing dress up again and this time I heard the girls tell Angela she was a boy and boys didn't dress in girls clothes. I had never heard Angela talk the way she did that day before, and was sure I had simply been hearing things until she started crying saying she was a girl too, and just wanted to dress up so she could be pretty.

Allison the oldest looked over at me, and I nodded that if letting Angela dress like a girl would stop her crying let her dress like a girl. As they started Angela said she wanted to dress like a girl completely, she wanted to wear panties too, so she could be a girl not just look like one. I chuckled hearing that logic coming from a three year old. She wanted to be a girl, and that meant not just wearing girl clothes that everyone could see, but wearing girl clothes that went underneath as well, just in case she happened to show a little too much. Brittany said she could have a pair of her old panties that didn't really fit anymore, but there was no way she was wearing her new panties. Angela smiled and said she didn't care as long as they were real girl panties not the silly boy panties mom and I made her wear.

I started looking into what was going on and found a therapist that said it was normal for a boy that age who had only sisters to want to fit in. When I brought up that she wanted to fit in by being a girl even insisting on wearing girl underwear, the therapist said I needed to put a stop to it and fast, by making sure she learned she was a boy, and boys didn't do those kinds of things. He suggested I not allow her to play with anything but boy toys until she learned the difference. I thought about what he told me, and thought of how that might affect Angela mentally. I wasn't going to stop my children from expressing themselves in a manner they felt was right just because it didn't fit a mold I set. My children were and still are free to be who they see themselves to be, as long as they abide by the laws that we have about not stealing, cheating, hurting others or killing. I wanted them to feel they could come to me for anything, and if that meant Angela became Angela so be it, we weren't old enough yet we couldn't try again if it turned out Angela was a girl mentally.

I talked with my wife about what the therapist said and let her know I didn't agree with them about forcing our child to fit into a mold that may, or may not fit them. Who were we to say Angela wasn't a girl in spirit, even though the physical evidence said otherwise. Catherine wanted to try what the therapist said until I gave her my concerns about